ICT-09-2019-2020
a) Research and Innovation boosting promising robotics applications
Innovative approaches to hard research problems in relation to applications of robotics in promising new areas are particularly encouraged. Proposals are expected to enable substantially improved solutions to challenging technical issues, with a view of take-up in applications with high socio-economic impact. Driven by application needs, the work can start from research at low TRL, but proposals are expected to validate their results in realistic environments in order to demonstrate the potential for take-up in the selected application(s).
The call is open to all robotics-related research topics and to all new application areas. Excluded are the four priority areas which are already covered elsewhere in this work programme: healthcare, inspection and maintenance of infrastructure, agri-food and agile production. Proposals will be expected to plan efforts to connect and cooperate with the DIHs, Platforms and other relevant activities of this work programme, as appropriate.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between €3 million and €5 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
b) Innovation Actions - Robotics for infrastructure inspection and maintenance
Establish large-scale pilots capable of demonstrating the use of robotics at scale in actual or highly realistic operating environments; showcase advanced prototype applications built around platforms operating in real or near-real environments and demonstrate high levels of socio-economic impact.
Through large-scale pilots, proposals are expected to make a significant step forward in platform development in the area of infrastructure inspection and maintenance. Starting from suitable reference architectures, platform interfaces are defined, tested via piloting, and supported via ecosystem building preparing their roll-out, and are being evolved over time into standards.
Each proposal is expected to establish large scale pilots. They are expected to: consider utilising existing infrastructure and links to other European, national or private funding-sources; identify the long-term sustainability of the pilot; develop scalable technical solutions capable of meeting performance targets; develop metrics and performance measures for the pilot; engage relevant industry stakeholders, including SMEs, in the provision and operation of the pilot. Proposals will be expected to dedicate resources to disseminate best practice and coordinate access to platforms and demonstrators, in particular in connecting with the Robotics DIHs and Core Technologies actions and other relevant activities, in H2020 and beyond.
Pilots are expected to address both technical and non-technical issues, such as socio-economic impact, novel business models, legal and regulatory, ethical and cyber-security issues and connections to Big Data and IoT.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between €7 million and €9 million would allow this area to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
c) Robotics Competitions
Competitions aims at reducing technical and commercial risks by allowing commercial and technical performance data to be gathered and assessed. They provide a real or near-real operating environment for long-term trials and the testing of deployment strategies.